A death row inmate who has been behind bars in Oklahoma for nearly 25 years and avoided being executed seven times is having his case reviewed.
Richard Glossip has spent more than two decades on death row and his case has taken a turn after Oklahoma's attorney general ordered an independent review into the murder conviction and the death sentence handed down for it.
Attorney general Gentner Drummond yesterday (26 January) said that district attorney Rex Duncan would be reviewing Glossip's conviction for ordering the murder of his boss in 1997.
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Glossip received the death penalty after being found guilty of murder for hire in the case of Barry Van Treese, and during his trial it was determined that he had paid hotel worker Justin Sneed to carry out the killing.
Sneed was not sentenced to death for his part in the death of Van Treese, and Glossip has always maintained his innocence in the case.
Since then Glossip has avoided his execution date on no fewer than seven different occasions, with the most recent reprieve coming in November 2022.
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Scheduled to be executed on 21 November, Glossip was granted a reprieve by Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt after Houston law firm Reed Smith raised concerns over lost or destroyed evidence and leading questions asked to Sneed by detectives.
Stan Perry, the attorney who led the investigation into the case's evidence for Reed Smith, said they had come to the conclusion that a jury with the full picture would not have convicted Glossip.
He said: "Our conclusion is that no reasonable juror, hearing the complete record, and the uncovered facts would have convicted Richard Glossip of capital murder."
The review will look at the initial investigation into the murder of Van Treese, who was beaten to death with a baseball bat in the motel he owned, along with the two trials which found Glossip guilty and the appeals he has lodged since.
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Lawyers for Glossip insist the 'newly uncovered evidence' will prove their client's innocence, with Glossip's attorney Don Knight releasing a statement on the matter.
He said: "The new evidence we have uncovered since 2015 shows conclusively, as the first independent investigation by Reed Smith found, that no reasonable juror who viewed all the evidence would find Mr Glossip guilty of murder for hire.
"We are confident that this new investigation will reach the same conclusion."
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Glossip has avoided seven separate times when he was scheduled to be executed, and depending on the outcome of the review into his case he could escape an eighth time, as his next execution date is 18 May.
Joe Harker